Vegging Out / Bay Point teens cultivate skills along with garden

Jason B. Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PDT, Friday, August 16, 2002

Maze Gardner age 19 weeds inside a tee-pee that's home to flowering vines at the Bay Point Teen Garden Project.Teens taking the program learn practical skills and the importance of good nutrition.By LANCE IVERSEN/SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE less

Maze Gardner age 19 weeds inside a tee-pee that's home to flowering vines at the Bay Point Teen Garden Project.Teens taking the program learn practical skills and the importance of good nutrition.By LANCE ... more

Photo: LANCE IVERSEN

Photo: LANCE IVERSEN

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Maze Gardner age 19 weeds inside a tee-pee that's home to flowering vines at the Bay Point Teen Garden Project.Teens taking the program learn practical skills and the importance of good nutrition.By LANCE IVERSEN/SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE less

Maze Gardner age 19 weeds inside a tee-pee that's home to flowering vines at the Bay Point Teen Garden Project.Teens taking the program learn practical skills and the importance of good nutrition.By LANCE ... more

Photo: LANCE IVERSEN

Vegging Out / Bay Point teens cultivate skills along with garden

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The summer sun pounded down on the 14 teens tending to rows of squash, corn and other vegetables on a modest 1-acre field, laughing and chatting as they dug shovels into chunks of hardened soil and carefully planted seeds by hand.

One dug a trench to create a miniature stream, another planted a single sunflower to decorate the center of a melon patch. For a group of youths with no prior gardening experience, working here has helped cultivate their work ethic, improve their learning skills and provide an alternative to the sometimes harsh realities of city life.

"It's like peace of mind for me," Maze Gardner, 18, of Pittsburg said as he built a wooden fence around his patch of farm land. "From where I come from there are a lot of crime and drugs, and when I come out here it's a nice chance to get away from everyday life.

"You can just tell there's a lot of love in this garden," he said.

The youths are part of the Bay Point Teen Garden project, which teaches kids from east and central Contra Costa County social skills and the importance of good nutrition by tending an organic garden filled with corn, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, beets, watermelon and other healthy treats.

The garden is in Bay Point next to the Riverview Middle School. Riverview students have been working there since November. This summer the program expanded to include 750 students from all seven Bay Point and Concord schools and the new six-week pilot program for teens ages 16 to 19.

The teen program seeks to provide job-training classes and have participants serve as mentors to their elementary school counterparts. Much of the garden was unused until the teenagers came in with their baggy pants, designer shirts and eager hands.

During one recent class they sat casually on hay bales in groups of two going over resumes, correcting mistakes and looking for ways to impress potential employers.

The kids aren't allowed to goof off; any more than three unexcused absences,

and the kid is out. Each teen receives a $750 stipend at the end of the program.

The garden is a collaboration of the Mount Diablo Unified School District, Abrose Recreation and Park District, Community Nutrition Network and Bay Point community activists.

Supporters are expecting the program to have a big impact on its participants, and so far the signs are promising.

"I never really was into gardening," said Erick Rosales, 19. "At first, I was just in it for the money but now, after everything that I've learned, I feel like I should have paid for it (the experience)."

"We also have flowers. The flowers attract the good bugs, which eat the bad bugs, which would eat the flowers," Diaz said, explaining the dynamics of a successful garden. "We've learned things like composting, irrigation."

Elementary students and the summer teens all learn the importance of good nutrition and eating a wide variety of foods, including five servings of fruits and vegetables a day from the garden's year-round teachers and managers,